Sony Presses Eject Button On The Walkman

Goodbye

An icon of the 1980s is heading into the history books. SONY has announced that it’s stopped production in JAPAN of the Walkman cassette player. Many people probably didn't realize the device, which first went on sale JULY 1st, 1979, was still being produced at all almost a decade after the iPOD.

The last of the players came off a Japanese assembly line in APRIL, and a few will continue to be produced for diehard fans out of a Chinese factory, SONY officials said this week.

APPLE co-founder STEVE JOBS is reported to have been among its biggest fans, according to former APPLE CEO JOHN SCULLEY. When SONY founder AKIO MORITA gave JOBS and SCULLEY two of the first Walkmans off the assembly line decades ago, the two were mesmerized by a device that was unlike anything they’d seen before. According to SCULLEY, JOBS promptly pulled the gadget apart to see how it was built.

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